What is "the cloud"?

Posts: 25
Joined: 07/02/10

What is "the cloud"?

Posted by Sed Lot on Dec 16, 2010 11:27 pm

I'm seeing "the cloud" more and more these days.

What is it? It seems like it's just marketing hype for what the rest of us call the internet. If I start telling my coworkers, "I'm working in the cloud," instead of, "I'll use remote access," I would hope they'd slap me.

billhart

Posts: 812
Joined: 04/29/10

Re: What is "the cloud"?

Posted by billhart on Dec 17, 2010 12:01 am

I'm certainly no expert, but here's what I think I've picked up about it.

We used to have our data on a computer, worked on it with programs on that computer, and if we wanted the data somewhere else we took steps to move it over the available data paths to that specific other place.

Now the trend is to keep your data, even to the point of your computer desktop configuration, and the library of programs to work on the data, on some computer out there somewhere, provided as a service, and let that service provider worry about doing the more intensive computations, backing up the data, and making it available wherever it is needed. You don't really know where the data and the computation are and it might not be all in one place. It's just somewhere in the cloud. It is sometimes compared to the electric power grid - you don't generate your electricity and don't care where it is generated. You are just hooked to the grid and consume it on demand.

The advantage is that you can access it from any and all computers with the right password, can have huge amounts of data for everybody to access, and you don't have to decide to where to send it. A downside is that you really have to trust the security of whoever is providing this service. And you have to plan ahead to be able to use your data somewhere that you won't be connected to the "cloud".

benc

Posts: 99
Joined: 07/08/10

Re: What is "the cloud"?

Posted by benc on Dec 17, 2010 3:49 am

but what will you do if your internet connection is down?

+++++++++++++++++ Ben--- Floating somewhere off the coast of Cebu, Philippines

Richard Sincovec

Posts: 809
Joined: 07/02/10

Re: What is "the cloud"?

Posted by Richard Sincovec on Dec 17, 2010 8:25 am

A key component of "cloud computing" is that your software is on the remote computer, rather than installed on your local computer.

swim4life

Posts: 198
Joined: 06/05/10

Re: What is "the cloud"?

Posted by swim4life on Dec 17, 2010 10:37 am

I use the "Cloud" every day.
Using dropbox I have a centralized folder on all of my PC's.
Change a file on one and it automaticly changes it the others.

I have all of my pc's and the company pc's set up with dropbox and Logmein.
Logmein lets me access any of my pc's from any pc with internet access.

So the real basis of "Cloud Computing" is access to any of your files and pc
from anywhere. You can have a personal cloud that lets you do this or
freebies like Dropbox and Logmein that provide this service.

If you have Windows 7 (or Vista ARGH!!) you can use Microsoft's
Live Essentials to create your own cloud.

jkeithmaxwell

Posts: 16
Joined: 09/09/10

Re: What is "the cloud"?

Posted by jkeithmaxwell on Dec 17, 2010 10:41 am

Great response Bill and a very good explanation of "the cloud." I agree that the "cloud" is just another word for the "internet". But I think the main difference is where your data and/or programs are located as mentioned by Richard. "Cloud computing" is the where I do my file backups. I use a number of different programs like Dropbox (free for 2 GB or less) or Enveloc (for secure server backup) for backup of files. I use a program called GetMytime for timetracking and importing time into Quickbooks.

All of these programs are located "in the cloud." I don't have the program loaded on my computer, and as Bill said, I can get to them from ANYWHERE I can get to the internet (probably not too far off the coast of CEBU, Philippines.)

In most cases, cloud computing saves you money. For example, for GetMyTime, I pay about $3/mo per employee to use the timesheet program. This is a lot cheaper for me than having multiple copies of Quickbooks all over the office for them to enter time. AND, I can check timesheets on the weekend from home and get them ready for import on Monday morning. We can also enter our time in the hotel room when we are out of town on a job.

Hope this helps.

Keith

billhart:
I'm certainly no expert, but here's what I think I've picked up about it.

We used to have our data on a computer, worked on it with programs on that computer, and if we wanted the data somewhere else we took steps to move it over the available data paths to that specific other place.

Now the trend is to keep your data, even to the point of your computer desktop configuration, and the library of programs to work on the data, on some computer out there somewhere, provided as a service, and let that service provider worry about doing the more intensive computations, backing up the data, and making it available wherever it is needed. You don't really know where the data and the computation are and it might not be all in one place. It's just somewhere in the cloud. It is sometimes compared to the electric power grid - you don't generate your electricity and don't care where it is generated. You are just hooked to the grid and consume it on demand.

The advantage is that you can access it from any and all computers with the right password, can have huge amounts of data for everybody to access, and you don't have to decide to where to send it. A downside is that you really have to trust the security of whoever is providing this service. And you have to plan ahead to be able to use your data somewhere that you won't be connected to the "cloud".

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Andrew Gaiennie

Posts: 78
Joined: 12/02/10

Re: What is "the cloud"?

Posted by Andrew Gaiennie on Dec 17, 2010 1:24 pm

I feel obligated to answer this question.
There is a significant, but subtle, difference between the Internet and the Cloud. The Internet is a place for information and exchange between linked computers. The Cloud adds the processing power of those machines to the information to make it possible to perform tasks faster or with a weaker piece of hardware. Another way to think about it is your PC or MAC is doing all the work when you create a file(Word, CAD, etc) and email it. If you were using a Cloud-based computing method you would create those same files in a browser using the hardware and software of millions of other machines. There are lots of benefit to acknowledging and using a cloud, the biggest worry is your relying on a source that you don't have physical access to. Be careful to safeguard your files by checking the facts behind the programs your using.